New Report: PA has a (voter) identity crisis.

The Folks At The ... ... leftward-leaning Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center are out with a new report today concluding that the state Department of Transportation faces some challenges when it comes to implementing Pennsylvania's new Voter Identification law.

For those of you who have forgotten, PennDOT is in charge of issuing free, non-driver photo ID so that folks without driving licenses or some other form of accepted ID can cast their ballots at the polls this fall.

The state is spendng about $1.8 million in taxpayer funds on the new ID cards. A further $5 million in federal money has been earmarked for voter outreach and education efforts.

In a statement, the policy group says it wanted to document "the experience that voters would have when seeking to obtain an ID through the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), the agency responsible for issuing the free ID," that voters can use to comply with the new law.

The advocacy group says it recruited volunteers who made 47 visits to 43 PennDOT offices in 28 counties to see how the agency was complying with the new ID requirements.

Among other things, "volunteers were asked to observe if signage was visible, if documents necessary to obtain a free ID were readily available, and if the staff they encountered were familiar with the request for an ID and able to direct them appropriately. Since access to a free ID is critical to the constitutionality of the law, we asked voters to indicate if PennDOT staff volunteered information that an ID could be obtained for free," the advocacy group wrote on its website.

Here's what it found -- and we're quoting directly from the report here:

In only 13% of observations was there signage in the reception area indicating a voter ID could be obtained. In almost half the visits, neither signs nor written information was observed.

While most PennDOT staff encountered by our volunteers were familiar with the request for voter ID, in nearly half the visits individuals were given incomplete or inaccurate information.

Few PennDOT staff volunteered that a voter ID could be acquired for free, and in three in 10 cases, volunteers were told incorrectly that they would have to pay.

The standard form for obtaining a non-photo ID does not indicate that it is available for free to certain voters, and a second form required to get the ID was not readily available.

The number and hours of operation of PennDOT offices are quite limited. There are 71 driver’s license centers in all of Pennsylvania, and nine counties do not have any centers at all. In an additional 20 counties, the driver’s license center is open three days a week or less.

One in five volunteers had to return a second time because the Driver License center or Photo License center was closed.

Read the full report, after the jump. A spokesperson from PennDOT could not immediately be reached for comment.

Here's the full text of the report by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center.